You've Got to Hand It To Them. . .

After breakfast on Tuesday the 9^th, our last morning, we headed under Charles Bridge, took a shortcut via Kampa Island, and headed for the John Lennon Wall.  A hero to young Czechs after his murder in late 1980, someone painted his face on a secluded wall – and attempts to whitewash it did not hold, as the original came through and was repainted.  Finally, after the fall of Communism, the owners of the wall gave up.  I thought it might be a pretty amazing sight to behold, but unfortunately it is now primarily just a wall for graffiti.  It was the most disappointing place we visited in Prague.  I’m not a huge Lennon guy (although he’s better than that other influential Lenin), but it seemed intriguing.  It was not. 

There was a movie scene being shot in the square right below the Charles Bridge on our side of the river.  We watched one take, and then walked into town (our seventh and second to last crossing of the bridge – seems like more).  The girls decided not to do souvenir shopping (although Julia and Torie each eventually bought t-shirts.  Btw, approximately 90% of the t-shirts reference drinking, so I’m glad they went with more neutral: “Prague, Czech Republic” shirts.)

We went into three churches – the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, St. Nicholas (a different one than yesterday), and St. James.  If you only have time for one, go to Tyn – it’s yet another spectacular church with artifacts from the 1400s.  However, the attraction of St. James is the 400 year old mummified arm of an unsuccessful thief caught red-handed in the church trying to steal jewels.  Apparently when he said he’d give his right arm to be remembered in history, the church folks took him seriously (just kidding about that last line, but not the gist of the story).

Back to the hotel (with one quick stop for the last Gelato in Prague), pack up, and off to the train station.  Looking out the window now at Austria, and there are a significant number of wind turbines off in the distance.  An hour till Vienna, and hopefully wireless coverage so I can post this to the blog!